State of the Twist

A milestone and the future

About a week ago, WWAT reached 4,000 subscribers. We are incredibly grateful to everyone who reads the newsletter. For me, it’s the most enjoyable project I’ve worked on in my career. And that’s saying a lot, as I’ve spent considerable time in such fun fields as astronomy and science museums. At one point, I sent science instructions to astronauts on the ISS. And I once almost had a heart attack when a robotic dinosaur walked in my office door and said “Hi, Aaron”. But nothing beats discussing weather research with smart people who get a joke.

This photo of my daughter inspired our logo.

I struggled over whether to include the tiara or not.

The Future

We’re planning to introduce a paid subscription option in the next month or so. Don’t worry; the main newsletter will always be free. Subscribers will get access to some bonus content and our heartfelt thanks for helping to keep this going. But the content you’re reading now will remain free for everyone.

One thing we hope to use the potential new revenue for is to commission custom scientific illustrations, including work by Jono Hey. We already plan to include some of his wonderful Sketchplanations in coming issues. Below is an example:

To me, the ability to draw a straight line is on par with the ability to solve differential equations or complete a triple-quad. All three require magic, perhaps of the dark kind. (Jono Hey, Sketchplanations)

You may recall that we published an article about the relationship between lake effect snow and lightning. I wish I used this sketch in that article.

For those who joined us along the way, check out our archive. We have about 60 articles. We started doing them weekly but are now pushing them out about once every ten days or so, which seems more sustainable.

We’re always looking for more scientific reviewers. It’s technically a volunteer gig, but we have been fortunate enough to offer a small honorarium and plan to continue doing so. We thank Lockheed-Martin for a recent sponsorship that helps make it possible. Contact me if interested. It’s usually just a couple hours/month to make sure I don’t say something embarrassing. Thanks to Chad, Milind, Beth, and Swarn for being our current reviewers.

We’ve done almost no marketing for the newsletter. Subscribers come via word-of-mouth. We have slow-but-steady growth with occasional jumps. You can help by recommending us to others and posting to your various communication channels. Also, liking posts and writing comments helps bump us up the Substack recommendation feed.

Subscriber growth. The first jump was due to a goat sacrifice we made. The subsequent ones were related to significant weather events (tornado outbreaks, hurricanes, fires, etc.).

Finally, now is a very tough time in the field of meteorology. The National Weather Service was understaffed even before the recent changes. Morale is low there, at NOAA, and across the weather enterprise at large. If you know a meteorologist, please contribute to their care and feeding. We try to keep things light here - and will continue to do so because humor is a powerful salve. But we have to at least acknowledge the context of our world right now. Check out Dr. Barb Boustead’s recent Substack newsletter about what meteorologists actually do. She should know, she’s worked for the National Weather Service and NOAA for decades.

Thank you for reading WWAT! Please spread the word to your science-loving friends and colleagues.